Anyone who is familiar with Agenda 21 knows that both the Socialists and the extreme environmentalists are working to destroy private property rights. Without property we are no more than slaves. One of the strategies used to destroy property rights is conservation easements.
Keeping it simple, conservation easements are created when a land trust pays a land owner to promise to not develop IN PERPITUITY their property (in most cases just building a new barn would be not be allowed under the terms of the conservation easement). In return the land owner and his heirs are then able to stay on this land in perpetuity, which is an awful long time to prevent development of a parcel of land.
You may have followed the story of Martha Boneta, who bought in 2006 acreage in Virginia that was part of a conservation easement. If so you are aware the land trust, Piedmont Environmental Council, from whom the conservation easement had been purchased, fined Ms. Boneta $5,000 dollars per day after the zoning administrator saw a picture posted on Boneta’s Facebook page of a birthday celebration given on her farm. This heavy-handed treatment triggered a long contracted legal battle by Ms. Boneta to maintain control of her property which ultimately ended in Boneta’s Law. Boneta’s Law has shown a light on the abuses of conservation easements and gained a degree of property rights protection for small farmers in Virginia.
What you likely do not know is that Ms. Boneta is again back in court. To learn more about the new battle, again against the land trust, Piedmont Environmental Council, click on this link.
You also likely do not know that Ms. Boneta’s story has been made into a film that was shown at the Anthem Film Festival at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas on July 11, 2015 where it won two awards. If you would like to see a trailer for this fine video, click on this link.
You may also wish to read about a 2013 law suit filed against a horse farm, which was being operated under a conservation easement, and how just a few small changes on the farm triggered this two-year court battle. If so, click on this link.
Moral of the story: beware of conservation easements and land trusts. While they may fix a short-term cash flow problem, they will create restrictions for current and future land owners. More important conservation easements decrease future economic activity on the property affecting the nation’s bottom line. In addition, as more land is removed from private ownership, the cost of land and taxes on non-conservation easement land will increase. Eventually only the elite will be able to afford land, forcing the rest of us into the city where we can be more easily controlled by an over-reaching government.
